The Fourth Night

 

As promised the previous week, after dinner, I set up the table for our game. I took two decks of cards, shuffled them, and dealt 53 cards each to myself and to him, alternating. Always in silence, I took my 53 cards, and he took his.

“Now, separate thirteen cards, place them to your right, and leave the top card face-up. During the game, always leave the top card from that stack face-up. The remaining stack should always have all the cards face-down.”

“Now, a few introductory words. This game is about a hundred and fifty years old, and it spread quickly around the world and games often end up adopting many different names, with rules changing here and there depending on the region they’re played in. Traditionally, it’s called Russian Bank, but some French enthusiast thought the cards jumped around the table like frogs in a pond, so they called the game 'Crapaud,' or 'frog,' and so it goes, from country to country. That said, I’m going to teach you how I learned it, and just know that another player might tell you they play it with another name or differently in some way.”

“The stack on the right is the crapaud, and the one on the right is the discard pile. From that pile, we’ll each take four cards and make two columns, like I’m showing you.”

“Whoever has the highest card in the crapaud starts the game. You should begin by looking at the eight cards we have face-up on the table. We need to build descending sequences with alternating colors. For example, you can place this red Queen over the black King, which will leave an open space. Place this Ace of Diamonds in the space between the two columns. All the Aces we find will go between the columns, and on top of them, we’ll build ascending sequences of the same suit. Do we have any 2s of Hearts in the two columns?”

“No.”

“Then we’ll wait for one. But with this movement, we’ve opened two cards in the columns. This is the time to use the cards from the crapaud. If the top card can go into one of the descending sequences, use it for that; if it can go into one of the Ace foundations, use it for that. If it doesn’t fit anywhere, just fill one of the empty spaces. Now flip the second card and see what can be done with it. Alright! Now leave the third card face-up, and that’s how it will be for the rest of the game, until the crapaud runs out—or doesn’t.”

“If there’s nothing more to do with the crapaud, flip the top card of the reserve pile and repeat the process with it: can it go into any sequence? Any foundation? If not, leave it face-up between your two piles; this will be the discard pile. Now it’s my turn. First the crapaud, then the discard pile. Notice that whenever there’s space and an opportunity to move cards from the table, the crapaud, the reserve, or the discard to expand the sequences or foundations, I should do so.”

“Another thing: if I pull a card from my discard pile of the same suit, immediately higher or lower in value than the card on top in your discard pile, I can place my card on top of yours. If we have space in the columns and I flip a card from my discard pile of the same suit, immediately higher or lower in value than the card at the top of your crapaud, I can place it on top of it.”

“The game goes on until one of us runs out of cards and wins. It might happen that the game gets blocked. Some say that the player with fewer cards wins, while others follow a point system to determine a winner. I follow the school of thought that says: it’s a tie, and no one wins.”

“Now, let’s go on the adventure of Crapaud!”

“Off we go!” he replied.